Lenin's Roller Coaster

"Autumn 1917: As a generation of Europe's young men perish on the Eastern and Western fronts, British spy Jack McColl is assigned a sabotage mission deep in the heart of Central Asia, where German influence is strong and where he'll be in completely unfamiliar territory. Despite his uncanny ear for foreign languages, there is much he doesn't know about the cities he's to infiltrate, or the people he's to meet there. As he quickly realizes, the mission only becomes more dangerous the closer he gets to its heart. Meanwhile, the woman he loves, Irish-American suffragette journalist Caitlin Hanley, is in Bolshevik Russia, thrilled to have the chance to cover the Revolution. As the noose of anti-Russian government propaganda tightens around the American press, strangling the progressive and socialist workers' movements, the Russians seem to be making strides toward equality, women's rights, and real social change. Caitlin knows Moscow is where she is meant to be during this historic event--even if she is putting her own life at risk to bear witness. But four years of bloody war have taken their toll on all of Europe, and Jack and Caitlin's relationship may become another casualty. Caitlin's political convictions have always been for progress, feminism, and socialism--often diametrically opposed to the conservative goals of the British Empire Jack serves. Up until now, Jack and Caitlin have managed to set aside their allegiances and stay faithful to each other, but the stakes of their affair have risen too high. Can a revolutionary love a government spy? And if she does, will it cost one of them their lives? "--

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I hadn't realized until reading the author's notes at the end of the book that this was the fifth book in a series of six. Obviously I had not read the previous four. And I'm not likely not going back to read them. Don't get me wrong, this is a very interesting read and I look forward to #6. It is just that going back to the first four now that I know how the Jack McColl series turns out.
As to the story of Lenin's Roller Coaster, the narrative is a very good telling of what was going on in Russia in 1917 when the Romanov government was overthrown. Reds, Whites, Czechs, Left Socialist Revolutionaries (LSRs), Siberia, Persia, Moscow, Petrograd and much more are woven into a compelling plot.
Downing is a really good writer and story-teller.